YG Entertainment justifies G-Dragon's USB album format

According to YG Entertainment, the album was put in a USB format "to provide more diverse contents in addition to music."

YG Entertainment has defended the use of USB drive for G-Dragon's new album instead of a CD. Korea's Gaon Chart, managed by the Korea Music Content Association (KMCA), has announced that it will not count the sales of "Kwon Ji Yong" since the USB drive does not contain songs but only links to G-Dragon's album tracks.

The current regulation defines an album as songs "fixed in a concrete object," according to the YG blog, and "Kwon Ji Yong" will be released in the USB format on June 19.

According to YG Entertainment, the album was put in a USB format "to provide more diverse contents in addition to music."

"A regular CD is about 700 megabytes, and that is barely enough space for 20 songs. We can't even have a single high definition music video in the CD. G-DRAGON's USB album is four gigabytes. The USB is big enough to hold dozens of songs and high definition music videos. And it is the most portable device out of all other music storage devices," the agency explained.

It admitted that the USB does not contain songs but links.

"When you put the USB in a computer, you can follow the link and gain access to a website. The website provides not only music but also G-DRAGON's pictures and music videos, which can be downloaded to the USB until the end of this year," YG Entertainment explained.

The website will also provide the official music video for "Untitled," the title track in G-Dragon's album, as well as a different version with G-Dragon donning a different outfit and a behind-the-scenes video.

With Gaon not counting the USB album sales, it will affect G-Dragon's rankings on TV music shows.

But YG Entertainment said it "doesn't have complaints about the way Gaon compile data for its chart rankings."

"YG is more interested in new music and the new world. We think that the whole issue is a structural problem, those holding on to the old way of thinking and not being able to accept the changes that are happening right now," it added.

It said G-Dragon decided to use USB "to give more to his fans such as videos and pictures."

"So, it very difficult to understand why some people would want to confine music storage devices to only CDS. Even those in their seventies and eighties don't listen to music from CD players, and it's hard to find places to buy them. Most people use USBs or hard disk drives, and not CDs, to store data. Why does music have to be stored only in CDs? This doesn't make sense," the agency said.